


The Man in a Rat Skin

by WhyWhyNot



Series: Sins of the Mother [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets, Parseltongue, Potions Ingredients, medias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2019-11-16 03:03:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18086231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/pseuds/WhyWhyNot
Summary: Wynstella is back for her third year.





	1. The Ones Who Speak

Chilly apparates Wynstella and Shanks directly in the Hogwarts Express, and gives her a quick hug before apparating away. 

(They hug a lot, now, Chilly and Leary and her. Not Shanks, who prefers to be petted. It's probably wise. It would be all to easy to crush his small bones.)

She throws her shoes in a corner and lie down on the seats with a book.

 _Wixen Children in Modern Britain_ , by Marshall Lawson. This book is incredibly dry reading, and more than a bit prejudiced, but it's also informative.

(Wynstella wants to help other kids, to make sure they are safe, that there are not monsters in their basement or behind their guardians door.)

\---

Lakshmi and Nevra come in together, and sit on the seat in front of Wynstella. She puts her book back in her bag.

"How were the holidays?"

Nevra groans dramatically. 

"Hor-ri-ble. Except Fred and George, they all kept calling me _Ginny_!"

Wynstella and Lakshmi wince in sympathy, and Lakshmi gives her a few pats on the head.

"Lakshmi, what about you?  
\- I learned how to fillet fish and rudiments of embroidery.  
\- Sounds nice."

Lakshmi nods.

"It's always good to learn new skills."

They turn to Wynstella.

"What about your aunt?"

She can't quite keep the note of pride and happiness out of her answer. 

"Shanks killed her.  
\- Wow! How?   
\- You remember my flask of basilisk venom?"

They nod.

"Good. So, I was in danger, and he broke the flask, dipped his claws in, and aimed for the ankle."

Nevra gives an admirative whistle. 

"Well, that's impressive!   
\- Thank. You."

There's a pause. 

"Wynstella. Did Shanks just. You know. _Talked_?  
\- Oh, yes, he can do that now."

The two girl stare. Lakshmi is the first one to find her words. 

"Well. Congratulations.   
\- Thank. You. Laksh.  
\- Laksh?   
\- Long. Words. Are. Hard.  
\- Lakshmi is like, two syllables.   
\- One. Is. Short. Two. Is. Long."

Lakshmi nods, and Nevra lets it go. Wynstella smiles. 

Things are going well.


	2. The Ones Who Plan

Wynstella made a list of things they should learn. Little spells that could prove themselves useful, if the trend of the two last years is anything to go by.

"O.k., I understand episkey. But why is there so many cleaning spells, and what is this one?"

Wynstella smiles. She's proud of this one.

"It's the spell to make talking cards.  
\- I don't understand."

She smiles wider. 

"A more specific definition would be that this is a spell that, when casted on an object, will reccord what is spoken to it and repeat it at will."

She pauses to let them muse her words. Lakshmi's shoulders jerk a little in realisation. 

"Blackmail.   
\- That's not what I was thinking about, but good idea.  
\- Wait, what was your idea?   
\- Parsletongue. We could record a few words so we could move more freely in the Chamber.   
\- You mean...  
\- I mean we should clean the Chamber and use it as our headquarters, yes."

The two girls give her identical smiles.


	3. The One Who Isn't Someone Else

Wynstella is tired of this... _bullshit_. Really tired. 

(Getting rid of Aglaeca didn't get her rid of her name, or of her mother's.)

But of course, it doesn't stop the rumor mill.

(This is ridiculous. Why would she help Sirius Black? She never saw him in her whole life, and they're not that closely related : he's only her first cousin once removed. He's also Draco's first cousin once removed, and they don't accuse him of helping.)

"Don't mind them. They're dicks."

She knows. But it pisses her off anyway. 

(They all see her as a copy, a mirror of her mother. Even her own reflection shows her the same wild hair, the same black eyes, the same fucking _pureblood beauty_.)

She wants to punch the mirror, to break it, to watch it shatter in thousands shards of silver and glass, and the blood on the sharp crystal edges will be worth it.

(She wants people to look at her without seeing Bellatrix Lestrange.)

(Without seeing Bellatrix Black.)

Her hand tightens on her wand.

"Diffindo!"

\---

Professor Sprouts almost screams when she sees Wynstella's hair, and scolds her for her irresponsibility. 

There aren't enough words in the english language to express how little Wynstella cares.

Professor Sprouts drags her to the infirmary, and asks Madam Pomfrey to grow her hair back. Wynstella calmly explains that she'd rather not.

When they refuse to listen, she drops herself on the floor and screams until they give up.

(Madam Pomfrey still trims them into a more presentable cut. Wynstella thinks she looks very cute.)

(More importantly, she doesn't look like anyone.)

\---

Nevra seems dubious at first, but finally relents.

"If it doesn't end well, it's on you."

Wynstella can live with that.

Nevra brings her to the Terrible Two.

"So, tell us, what does...  
\- ... an innocent, itsy bitsy...  
\- ... Hufflepuff like you want from two...  
\- ... scoundrels like us?"

They walk in circle arou.nd her, finishing each other's sentences, and it's hard to focus. 

She closes her eyes. Their voices are the same, so she can pretend there's only one person speaking. It's easier. 

Wynstella exposes her idea, and the Terrible Two agree to it.

\---

Wynstella has two favorite colors, and they are neither yellow nor black. 

(Wynstella is hardworking, yes, and loyal, but her loyalty _never_ was to Hufflepuff.)

(Lakshmi is in Ravenclaw, but she wears green rather than blue, and ignores those who call her Slytherin.)

(Nevra is _not Ginny_ , and where Ginny loved scarlet and crimson and ruby, she prefers heliotrope and plum and violet, deep and vibrant and _different_.)

Her friends laugh at the green and purple tip of her hair, and she can see her reflection in their eyes. 

She looks like herself.


	4. The Ones Who Bring New Beginnings

Wynstella is bad at the recording charm. But Nevra mastered it in two days, and casted it on two of her earrings. 

(Lakshmi talked to both in the language of snakes, and if she pinches them between her thumb anf forefinger, the left one hisses _open_ and the right one whispers _close_.)

They agree to start with the basilisk. Maybe some of it can still be saved, for potion ingredients or other uses.

None of their knives can go through its skin. 

\---

Another thing the girls agreed to is that Wynstella shouldn't go beyond the first hallway of the Chamber alone, in fear of an unexpected parsletongue trap.

Wynstella came early and, for lack of anything better to do, she alterns between tryng cleaning spells and putting bones in a bag to discretly throw them in the lake or forest. 

Chilly apparating beside her almost gives her a heart attack.

Its Leary. He, apparently, can't bear to stay in Lestrange Manor, constantly reminded of his twin's death. Chilly wants to know if Wynstella could find him something to do at Hogwarts.

Wynstella looks at her half full bag, and at the tiny bones covering the ground. Her ankles are submerged, and there's at least a hallway worth of them. 

Yes. Yes, she can.

Chilly pops away. Wynstella takes a second to think. 

"Chilly!"

Chilly pops back.

"Tell him to bring something to cut basilisk skin if he can."

Chilly pops away. 

\---

The enchanted knife Leary brings cut through the scales like melting butter, and soon the skin, the fangs and the bones are neatly piled in a corner. Nevra cheers and gives him a chocolate. 

They agree to clean the hallway next.


	5. The Ones Who Make Light

The hallway looks much better when clean. The stone isn't grey, but a green-veined black, polished on the walls like as many dark mirrors. 

They tackle the great room next, all giant statue and lines of pools, snakes wrapped around slender colonnes. 

It's beautiful, in a cold, grandiose way, and Wynstella quite like it.

It could do with more light, though. 

\---

Ginny Weasley died on Halloween. 

In the morning of October 31st, Nevra goes to her friends and tells them. About Samhain, the night the Veil is the thinnest, the night spirits and ghosts are the strongest. About last year Halloween, when the boy in the diary was strongest, when he took control to write threats on the walls.

The night Tom killed Ginny Weasley. 

Nevra doesn't want to go to the Feast, can't bear the idea of laughter and excitement on her day of mourning. 

(Wynstella thinks of the red of Gryffindor table, of sticky sweet candies, of the greasy, oily smell of meat.)

She doesn't want to go either. 

\---

Leary brings them sandwiches in the Chamber, and they eat sitting on the stone floor. When they're done, they lie on their back, the silence only bloken by Lakshmi hissing in parsletongue.

"Lakshmi, what are you saying?  
\- I'm saying things at random to see if something happens.  
\- Oh."

Lakshmi hisses some more. Nothing happens. 

"Ideas?  
\- Did you try 'light'?"

Lakshmi hisses what Wynstella assumes means 'light'.

And there is light. 

\---

The Chamber is made of black, green-veined stone, and when Lakshmi says 'light', all the green veins illuminates, filling the room with a pale green glow. The pools, lighted up from beneath, seems filled with liquid fireflies. 

It is strange and eerie, beautiful and just on this side of scary, and Wynstella loves it.

Here, with Lakshmi and Nevra, she feels at home.


	6. The Ones With Smiles Full of Teeth

They spend the night in the Chamber, telling stories to each other until they fall asleep. 

\---

MacGonagall catches them in the hallway when they go to take breakfast, and positively _looses her shit_.

Apparently, Cousin Sirius infiltrated the castle this night, and all the students had been brought to sleep in the Great Hall for their own safety.

It sounds well and reasonable, but MacGonagall asked them how they managed to sneak out of the Great Hall.

(They didn't even thought to _do a roll call_.)

\---

The rumors start again after that. They had calmed down a bit after her haircut, but a change in appearance isn't enough to counteract the effect of a name in front of such _conpelling_ evidence. 

(" _...she's_ Bellatrix's daughter, _who knows what she will do_...")

(" _...a Black, you know, they're all crazy..._ ")

(" _...in the hallways this night, probably helped him get inside..._ ")

(Wynstella wants to scream.)

"It's ridiculous! He wasn't even a Death Eater!   
\- Wait, he wasn't?  
\- No, and I would know. Mother was always complaining about that.   
\- Really?   
\- Yes. She spent a lot of time ranting about her blood-traitor of a cousin being attributed the honor of serving the Dark Lord while fighting him."

Nevra nods with a noise of understanding, and Lakshmi frowns. 

"Wait, that's weird.   
\- How so?   
\- Well, the WANTED posters from the Ministry say he _is_ a Death Eater. If you're right...  
\- I am.  
\- ...Then at least one of the charge is wrong, maybe more, especially if some are tied to his assumed status of Death Eater."

Well. That's... True. Not weird, because of the rampant incompetence and corruption and general _fucked up-ness_ , but true.

"Surely, it can't be _that_ bad."

Wynstella and Nevra exchange a look and a wince.

"No, believe me Laksh, it's _definitively_ that bad."

Her frown deepens. 

"It shouldn't be."

Wynstella thinks about Lakshmi, who is both _muggleborn_ and _parslemouth_ and _Merlin_ , she was really dealt the _worst_ hand, wasn't she? and agrees.

"Let's change that."

Lakshmi smiles, and shows her teeth.


	7. The Ones Who Look For Truth And Justice

They ask for the transcript of Cousin Sirius's trial, and don't get any answer. 

They try again, with the same lack of result. 

For lack of a better idea, Wynstella sends Amelia Bones a letter asking for a meeting about 'the Black Case', and proposed a date on a Hogsmeade weekend. 

To her surprise, she quickly gets a positive answer. 

\---

On the next Hogsmeade weekend, Wynstella takes the Knight Bus to the Ministry. Nevra and Lakshmi come, of course, her _you don't have to_ countered with Nevra's _don't be daft, Wynstella-dear, of course we do, we're in this together or not at all_.

At the Ministry, they take the visitors entrance, and the witch in the atrium sends them to Amelia Bones' office. 

Bones ushers the three of them inside, and as soon as the unskippable social niceties are over, Wynstella exposes the purpose of their visit. 

"We wanted to see the transcript of Black's trial."

Bones raises an eyebrow, the one without the monocle, as to ask for an explanation, and everything tumbles out of Wynstella's mouth. The charges on the posters and her mother's accusations, the letters left without answers.

(It feels very little, now, under Bones unyielding gaze, stupid how sure of herself se had been.)

(She's very glad, all of sudden, that Lakshmi and Nevra are there. She wonders what they look like, a muggleborn and a Weasley, sitting on either sides of the daughter of a Death Eater.)

"I just want to know the truth. There can't be justice without truth."

Bones write a request for the transcript, and with a tap of her wand, turn it into a paper plane and send it to the archives. 

"It should be up in ten minutes."

Half an hour later, there's still nothing. Bones send another note.

Nothing.

In the end, Bones send them back to Hogwarts with the promise of keeping them updated. Wynstella isn't expecting much. 

\---

They get the news three days later, as well as everyone else. It's right there, in bold letters on the front page of the _Daily Prophet_.

Sirius Black never had a trial.


	8. The Ones Who Will (Not) Pay For Their Rights

Two weeks, and Lakshmi is still fulminating, ranting about something called _bill of rights_. That sounds threatening. Are muggles supposed to pay for having rights? 

"No. You don't understand.   
\- What does it mean, then?"

Lakshmi thinks about it.

"The Bill of Rights. It's, uh. A bill. A law-bill, not a money-bill.  
\- Laksh, sweetheart, _all_ law-bills are money-bills."

Lakshmi glares at Nevra.

"Do you _have_ to be that cynical _all the time_?"

Wynstella understands Lakshmi's frustration, but Nevra isn't _wrong_. Nevra raises her hands in an exaggerated gesture of surrender. 

"Sorry, sweetheart. What's the _Bill of Rights_?"

Lakshmi huffs quietly. 

"It's a very important law-bill. It's, uh. It says that everyone has some rights, and one of them is that you can't jail someone without trial. Money or not."

They both stare at her.

"Okay, that's pretty cool.  
\- Thanks. The implication that Wizarding Britain doesn't have an equivalent is _the worst_."

Wynstella hums. Lakshmi is right, she thinks. They should have that, or at least some kind of equivalent. 

(Sirius Black shouldn't have been jailed.)

(Lucius Malfoy shouldn't have walked free.)

(Children shouldn't be the ones to fight.)

They can change that. What the muggles have isn't perfect, but it's _better_ , and if others did it it's proof they _can_.

Little steps. They said they would change the world, and they _will_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lakshmi somewhat confuses the bill of rights and tge habeas corpus


	9. The Ones Who Smell a Rat

It's Nevra who saves the day.

With a little unwitting help from her brothers. 

The Terrible Two had a map. A map. Of Hogwarts. Showing everyone in the castle, without any regard for their guise.

Which is, like, a ridiculously impressive feat of magic. 

(Wynstella is aware that she's rather incoherent, but in her defense, the events of the day were rather shocking.)

So, the Terrible Two had a map of Hogwarts, and they gave it to Kedavra. Nevra, as the beautifully cunning snoop she is, spied on the transmission, and stole the map in Kedavra's trunk. 

( _"Borrowed!"_ )

Nevra, without asking anyone for permission, sneaked into the third year boys dormitory in its occupants absence and borrowed the map in Kedavra's trunk. This feat allowed her, as well as the other members of their trio, to gawk at the little moving dot in amazement. 

It's Nevra who saves the day, with help from Lakshmi. 

"Is that Peter Pettigrew in the boys dormitory?"

Yes. It definitively was.

"So... What do we do?"

Lakshmi helps, of course, but in the end, it's Nevra who saves the day.

She gathers what she can of Gryffindor bravery, and goes back to the dormitories with the map clutched in her hand.

(Both Lakshmi and Wynstella pretend not to hear her muttering _give me courage, Ginny_.)

She comes back with a stupefied rat in obviously poor health. 

"The map says it's him. I think he's an animagus."

Yes, it checks out.

"So... What do we do _now_?"

That's a good question. 

"We all agree that Professor Lupin is a werewolf, right?"

Wynstella waits until the others nod to continue. 

"Good, because I'm not sure if it's true, but I think I read somewhere that werewolves can detect animagus. And he's the DADA teacher, so if Nevra goes to see him with 'Scabbers', and tells him her brother's pet behaved weirdly and she thinks he was cursed, he will have to look and maybe he will notice."

That's a plan. Not a very good one, but that's a plan.

\---

Upon seeing the rat, Lupin freezes, creatively swears, grabs Pettigrew and hightails to Dumbledore's office. 

...

Well. She's going to be optimistic, and take it as a success.


	10. The One Who Makes the Buzz

The revelation that Peter Pettigrew is alive, and posed as a pet for over twelve years, makes the headlines, and the article isn't lighthanded on the references to Sirius Black's lack of trial. 

The word 'incompetence' figures a lot. Generally associated with the words 'Minister' and 'Ministry'. For _some_ reason, the Minister was _very_ quick to organize a trial, and immunity for Sirius Black if he came, alongside _multiple_ references to the 'previous administration'. It was _almost_ like if they were trying to deflect the blame. _How strange_.

It wasn't something Wynstella ever expected to think, but...

 _Thanks Merlin for Rita Skeeter_.

\---

Sirius Black is proved innocent, and they celebrate with soft-boiled eggs and buttered toast in the Chamber. 

(They won this round.)


	11. The Ones Who Did Their Part

Pettigrew escapes ministry custody, of course, because they were overdue for adult unreliability and ministry incompetence.

Lakshmi tries to vent her anger by methodically tearing parchments and setting the pieces on fire. Wynstella distracts herself by trying to teach Shanks to say ‘Nevermore’.

“Cheer up! It’s not a perfect success, but our part worked out! And even if Pettigrew isn’t in jail, Black is free thanks to _us_!”

Well. That’s true.

When they get out of the train, Kedavra walks to Sirius Black with a wide grin, and Wynstella smiles too.

Not all is well. But the world is just that much of a better place, and she did her part.

No one can ask more of her.


End file.
